sweetwater or musiciansfriend

[mtown408]

who do you trust more and which one is better and why?

[zed32]

i think sweetwater has more of the higher end gear for recording. i've rarely bought from either of them though, so i can't comment too much on customer service, but i've never had bad experiences with either.


american musical supply is cool too, since they have the EZ_payment plan, which spreads your purchase price over 3 months interest free, or 5 months depending upon the total cost. i bought a couple things thru them as well.


Mercenary Audio is where it's at though.

[Arranger]

Sweetwater is geared more toward the professional and has customer service reps that can actually answer your technical inquiries. Their prices are slightly higher reflecting the amount of time and service they provide to customers. I have rarely bought from them because I use the internet to educate myself.

Musician's Friend is a mass marketer geared toward inflating their own bottom line. They are unable to properly educate their inquiring customers on the features, use and reliability of the equipment they sell. Their tactics on providing financing are aggressive and fraught with pitfalls, as any delayed payment agreements will be. On the other hand, they are large enough to swallow a great quantity of product returns in order to satisfy their customers' appetites for new equipment. I once bought 7 (SEVEN) Gibson SG Standards from them, returning 6 over a three month period as I sought the best of the mass produced SGs that I could find. They were accommodating in my case.

[bennychico11]

both really...i haven't had any problems with either. But I've dealt more with Sweetwater's customer service (when they were trying to pitch an HD unit to me)

Personally I like ZZounds more...but that's because their site is a little more informative about the products than Sweetwater. But some things can only be found through Sweetwater while others ZZounds carry (like if you're looking for Behringer, sweetwater doesn't carry them).

[andyhix]

Originally Posted by bennychico11

both really...i haven't had any problems with either. But I've dealt more with Sweetwater's customer service (when they were trying to pitch an HD unit to me)

Personally I like ZZounds more...but that's because their site it a little more informative about the products than Sweetwater. But some things can only be found through Sweetwater while others ZZounds carry (like if you're looking for Behringer, sweetwater doesn't carry them).

Ditto. [ 10 charandsognasdpgfampetraewras)

[TimOBrien]

Never had a problem with either of them.

Only thing about Sweetwater is that if you order a bunch of expensive gear, you'll get sales calls a couple times a year to sell you more. :-) I would give them a few points for tech savvy, but I've never needed it.